Workshop zum Buch "E-Bass Praxis"

Hallo,

hier ein kurzer Ausschnitt vom E-Bass-Praxis Workshop, den ich am vergangenen Wochenende in meiner Musikschule gehalten habe:

Workshop: Groovekonzepte für E-Bass in Wiesbaden

Hallo,

ich möchte Euch auf meinen nächsten Wochenendworkshop im Mai hinweisen. Am 10. & 11.05. dreht sich alles um's "bässer" grooven.

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Dieser Workshop umfasst grooverelevante Spieltechniken wie Deadnotes, Slides, Hammer-on’s etc. und zeigt deren Anwendung für’s „Groove-Enhancement“. Wir befassen uns mit Artikulationen und Mikrotime-Feels wie z.B. dem Laid-Back-Spiel. Außerdem werden die rhythmischen Besonderheiten der verschiedensten Stilistiken von Blues bis Funk von Reggae bis Hardrock unter die Lupe genommen, nach dem Motto „Bässer grooven in allen Lebenslagen“!

Der Workshop findet statt am Sa. d. 10.05.2014 von 14h – 18h und So. 11.05.2014 11-15h (= 8 Unterrichtsstunden)
Maximaler Teilnehmerzahl: 10
Kosten: 95,- €
Anmeldung bitte telefonisch an 0611 - 30 86 196 oder per eMail an info@stage-ahead.de

STAGE AHEAD Musicschool
the school for popular music
Bismarckring 3
65183 Wiesbaden
Tel.: 0611 - 30 86 196
www.stage-ahead.de

Außerdem gibt es während der Osterferien wieder die Möglichkeit bei mir individuell abgestimmte Bassintensivkurse im Einzelunterricht zu belegen. Bei Interesse einfach kurze Mail an tom@stage-ahead.de.

Guest-Lesson: Bass-Slap Exercise by Alfredo Hechavarria

This time I want share with you a little video lesson I've recorded with my colleague Alfredo Hechavarria, who is teaching at my musicschool since December 2013. He developed a fantastic Slap-Bass Tutorial with playalongs in 3 different tempos and a slow breakdown section. Here's an excerpt from Lesson #3:

Thank you for 250.000 Views!

This is a very good start for the new year. The Counter turned to over 250.000 views on this bass blog. I want to thank all my readers and wish you a very happy year 2014!

Weekly Basslines #132: Plush (Stone Temple Pilots)

A student of mine got to learn this tune until the next band practice on the 2nd of january, so i recorded a little tutorial for her to practice during the holidays.

Here's the transcription:

And here's the video tutorial. I'm playing through the whole song first and then show you the different parts in a slower tempo.

For all you "six-stringers"s out there I found this instructional video for guitar on the internet :

I wish you all a very peaceful x-mas and a good start into 2014!

Weekly Basslines #131: Freight Train (Chris Paulson)

And the requests keep coming in.....
Again from my former student Marina, I've been asked to show her the bassline that I'd been playing to the song "Freight Train" when performing with Chris Paulson. Chris is a great singer/songwriter from the San Francisco Bay area with which I had the honour and the pleasure to play with for a few years. I even appear on one of his records "Streets Of Frankfurt", which was recorded in Germany. The song "Freight Train" however is a cover-song that Chris had added to his setlist back then. Originally written by Fred Eaglesmith it has a nice "Train-groove" and I applied a very special picking hand technique to support this rhythm. I call this technique the "Three Stroke Deadnote Pattern" and the following video demonstrates how it works:

The figure shows how I notate this technique:

Here's Chris Paulson version of Freight Train with me playing the bass to it:

I recently found a video on YouTube that was recorded during a benefit performance we did in a church in Frankfurt, collecting money for the homeless. Here you can hear two of Chris' own compositions: "Streets of Frankfurt" and the wonderful "Night Rain":

If you like the music of Chris Paulson, please visit his homepage: 

http://www.chrispaulson.de/index.php/home.html

Weekly Basslines #130: You Raise me up (Westlife)

Christmas is just around the corner and that's the time when the setlists of many bands are getting sentimentalized. Markus from Switzerland requested this one. This tearjerking ballad is not a musical lightweight as it takes us through three different keys and lots of chord-inversions, so you always have to be on the watch with all the changing accidentals and non-root bassnotes. Starting in the key of Eb major (Bb, Eb, Ab), then changing to F major (only Bb) and finally culminating in Gb major with six accidentals (Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb) the main challenge in this tune is to keep track of the harmonies. And all those harmonies are cleverly chosen by the composers (Rolf Lovland and Brendan Graham) with the intention to create big emotions.
There's only one verse in this tune at the beginning, which is solely accompanied by the piano. The chords of the verse are very basic, mainly I-IV-V: 

But the frequent usage of chord-inversions hides the relatively simple structure of the verse progression and creates a smooth tension.

The chorus dramatically starts with the relative minor chord (Cm) and ends with the more peaceful major tonic (Eb):

The following Interlude establishes the first key change to a joyful F major:

The chorus starts again with the relative minor chord (now in F major being Dm) creating again a bit of sweet tearfulness, which is finally enhanced by a rise in key of a whole step to Gb during the last chorus. Sentimentality at it's maximum. ;-)

Thanks to Markus for the donation and this sentimental moment.